Emily was the type of person that would always think before acting. Even an impulsive wish like the one that had trapped her in this game was only made after 30 minutes of preparation. And even if she sometime made mistakes, she was confident she would at least be able to confront any situation rationally as long as she had time to think about it. However, it made it difficult for her to adapt to sudden and unexpected situations.
This situation had been sudden and completely unexpected.
Had Emily seen the spider before entering the temple, or even simply before walking into its web, maybe the situation would have been different, but she didn't. She hadn't had any time to think since the fight started, her brain only screaming at her to flee as fast as possible. Any thought about respawning after death or the spider not being real couldn't get past the fear she was feeling, and Karyn's every action were only perceived as obstacles to her escape.
Finally, Karyn gave her an ultimatum, and Emily wasn't able to take it. She couldn't flee, but she was unable to even consider the possibility of fighting, so she did the only thing she could do. She began crying.
This was not the reaction Karyn had hoped for, and she couldn't help but feel bad now, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. The spider had recovered and was approaching again, more carefully this time. "Fuck!" Karyn swore. Even if she ordered Emily to attack again, it would at best only delay her death in this situation, she had to think of something else quickly.
Emily was barely able to see the spider come in the darkness with her tear-filled eyes. She wanted to run away again, but her body didn't listen and only stayed there crying. She would normally be embarrassed to be seen like that, but she couldn't care less about how she looked right now. Suddenly, her body started to move on its own once again. She was expecting herself to attack the spider once more, but she instead stood up and began to run in the opposite direction.
Climb up a tree
Emily was somehow able to read this through her tears as she began climbing a small tree. For once, she didn't resist the command and actually embraced it. She began climbing the tree willingly, not waiting for her body to do it by itself, but was quickly interrupted by a shock on her left foot that almost made her fall. The spider had shot some web at her and stuck her foot against the trunk while she was climbing, and it was now rushing toward her. It took all her strength, but she was able to free herself at the cost of letting her shoe stuck inside.
The spider got to the tree and was almost able to reach her but came a few inches short, allowing her to take refuge on a branch. It wasn't very large and Emily still felt exposed, but it was enough to get her out of reach of the spider who was unable to climb the comparably small tree due to its size.
"You have to get yourself together!" Karyn voice rang once again. "I'm sorry about what I said... You don't have to fight, but running in a straight line isn't going to get you anywhere!"
After seeing she was somewhat safe for now, Emily's fear lessened a little, but far from calming her down, it made her anger soar instead. "Fuck you Karyn! FUCK! YOU!" Emily spat at Karyn. "I hate you! I hope you fucking die!"
Even knowing Emily didn't mean it, Karyn couldn't help but be hurt by her friend's words. She almost started fighting back with some of her own words, but she stopped herself. It wouldn't accomplish anything to fight now, and they would have a lot of time after this was over. "I already said I was sorry! But you were going to die if this continued!" Emily didn't even hear what Karyn said, her anger drowning everything except the flow of insults coming out of her mouth.
Karyn frowned. She really wanted to punch Emily's face right now, but she would only destroy her monitor if she tried... Unless maybe... She looked at Emily's health. She only had 7 HPs left out of 24... It would be a bad idea to do anything that could make her lose anymore...
Punch yourself
Emily's endless torrent of insults was interrupted as her fist suddenly shot toward her face at high speed. "Wha... ?!" HP: 6/24 "Fuck... What the fuck Karyn?! You... !"
Punch yourself
HP: 4/24 Critical hit! Emily almost fell from the tree following the strength of the punch, only barely keeping her balance thanks to another branch she reflexively grabbed. "Now you're going to listen to me if you don't want to punch yourself to the death!" Karyn said angrily making Emily shut up. "I get that it's scary but running away like you did will only lead to your death, and I will not take anymore insult for trying to keep you alive!"
"I..." Emily began but was interrupted.
"I'm not done! Now you have two choices! Either you work with me against that spider, even fleeing is okay as long as it's not running in a straight line without a plan, or I'm leaving you here to get eaten by the spider and come back when you're ready to work with me!"
When she stopped talking, only silence answered her. Even the spider had stopped trying to climb to the tree and was just observing them like she was waiting for an answer too. Eventually, Emily answered begrudgingly. "Alright... I'll work with you..." At that moment, a web shout out from the spider and struck the trunk just above Emily making her fear rise up again. "But we better do it quick..."
